Law School Honors and Celebrates Scholarship Support

For the second year in what will be an annual tradition, Columbus School of Law students had the opportunity to personally thank some of the generous donors whose support of the law school’s many scholarships is making their educations possible.

Held at the law school on Oct. 10th, the Scholarship Appreciation Luncheon brought together approximately 60 people, including 37 students, in recognition of the critical role such financial support plays in training current and future generations of Catholic University law students.

A blend of faculty, staff, and alumni donors were reminded by Dean Daniel F. Attridge that community support—as exemplified by his own establishment of the Dean Daniel F. Attridge Scholarship—creates enduring ties between the past, present, and future.

“Your presence is a strong sign of your support for our students. You choose to help not because you have to, but because you want to,” he said.

Scholarship funds that help to defray the cost of a legal education for Catholic University law students come from a variety of sources including the law school’s annual fund, endowed funds, and newly created Named Scholars funds. In addition to the student recipients, the luncheon event recognized major contributors to the annual and Named Scholars funds, as well as representatives from long-established endowments.

One of the key themes of the luncheon was that all giving makes a difference, in whatever amount the donor can afford.

Rev. Raymond O’Brien, a longtime member of the faculty, spoke movingly about his own engagement with the law school’s scholarship initiative. Since 1998, O’Brien has raised more than a half-million dollars for the Charles and Louise O’Brien Endowed Scholarship Fund, named in honor of the grandparents who raised him.

As a young child, O’Brien said he watched his grandfather, a man of very modest means, fish dimes out of his pocket while walking down the street to feed expired parking meters and help people avoid fines. Each evening before he went to bed, the child was asked, “What nice thing did you do for someone today?”

Such lessons in humility and humanity have stayed with him for life. “They instilled in me that faith means action,” said O’Brien. “When you give to the [O’Brien] fund, the money isn’t for me. It’s for these two people.”

The luncheon concluded with a heartfelt thank you from student Amelia Barry, Class of 2016, to all who financially support the law school’s dozens of endowed scholarships.

Barry, whose tuition costs are reduced with grants from the Honorable Kathryn J. DuFour Scholarship Fund, said that “without the support of our alumni and friends, many of us, including me, would not be able to be here and not be in a position to contribute to society later on.”